Female Fighters to Take Center Stage As More Bouts Added to Bellator Dublin

Female Fighters to Take Center Stage As More Bouts Added to Bellator Dublin

LOS ANGELES – Bellator today confirmed that two female bouts have been added to an already-stacked card in Dublin next month, along with a raft of exciting match-ups showcasing the very best Irish MMA has to offer.

Joining headliners James Gallagher and Steven Graham on the main card at the 3Arena on February 23 is Dublin mixed martial artist, Sinead “KO” Kavanagh (5-3), who will face the undefeated Olga “Big Bad” Rubin (5-0) in a women’s featherweight clash.

Bellator 217: Gallagher vs. Graham will be broadcast free on Paramount Network at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, as well as DAZN.com, while preliminary action will stream on Bellator.com and globally on the Bellator Mobile App.

Tickets are now on sale to the general public and can be purchased through Ticketmaster.ie and Bellator.com, as well as the 3Arena box office.

Trained by John Kavanagh at SBG Dublin, local fighter Sinead Kavanagh will enjoy the full support of a raucous crowd at the 3Arena when she steps out for her sixth Bellator appearance. She’ll be seeking out a third win under the promotion following a unanimous decision victory in her 2016 debut and a TKO win against Maria Casanova at Bellator 187 in November 2017.

Standing in the way of Kavanagh’s sixth professional career win will be Israel’s Olga Rubin, who is highly-touted amongst the women’s featherweight division having maintained a 100% winning record in her five professional MMA bouts to date. Three of those five wins have come via KO/TKO and Rubin will be looking to upset the Irish crowd and add the home favourite to her growing list of scalps.

Leah McCourt will hope to showcase the continued growth of Irish women’s MMA in her first appearance for Bellator; her third professional bout to date. The Northern Irish fighter, who trains at SBG Charlestown, is aiming to establish some momentum in her MMA career, having followed up a debut defeat in 2017 with a split decision victory over Manon Fiorot in June 2018.

Her opponent, the Netherland’s Hatice Ozyurt, is also looking to find a foothold in her professional MMA career and will attempt to build on a record of two wins from her eight professional bouts to date.

Another Dubliner, Paul Redmond, makes an eagerly-anticipated return to Bellator action following an assured unanimous decision win on debut against Sergio de Jesus Santos, back in November 2017. The lightweight fighter, who trains out of Team Ryano, has built a reputation as a versatile and unpredictable mixed martial artist. The UFC, BAMMA and Cage Warriors veteran has an even spread of TKO/KO, submission and decision victories and will be confident of adding a 15th win to his record.

Charlie Leary, from London, England, is a familiar face to UK and Irish MMA fans and is a veteran of 25 professional bouts. He is coming off the back of one of his most impressive wins to date, a second round TKO against Tom Green, in front of his hometown at Bellator 200 last May. Another in front of the passionate Irish crowd will give him successive wins for the first time since 2016 and his 16th in total.

As well as the above bouts, Richard Kiely will meet Mickael Bucher at welterweight; John Redmond and George Tokkos will face off at middleweight; Dylan Logan fights Andrew Murphy at featherweight; Walter Gahadza and Ruben Crawford meet at welterweight; and Sam Slater will face Chris Duncan at lightweight.